Managing stress and avoiding burnout: Part 2 – taking action

‘It
cannot be over-emphasised that attending lectures and workshops,
and reading and talking about burn-out are no substitute for doing
something about it.

We need to become our own stress-management experts and
learn to set or reset priorities and consider a change of
lifestyle, building changes into our everyday routine. This can be
a long, complex and sometimes costly process. The consequences of
neglecting our occupational health, however, are
considerable.’ Roberts
(1997)

The BMA quarterly tracker survey (April 2015) of approximately
3,000 doctors across the profession reported:

Morale and Workload

43% of respondents described their levels of morale as low or
very low

17% reported their morale as high or very high

GPs were more likely than any other group to report their
workload as being unmanageable or unsustainable, with the
percentage increasing from 62.5% to 73.5%

Junior doctors reporting their workload as unmanageable or
unsustainable has also increased this quarter from 12.5% to
29.6%.

Burnout

11.5% of doctors admit they are presently suffering from
burnout and 18.5% admit to previously suffering burnout

41% of doctors say they are at high risk of suffering burnout
in the near future